


Listen to the trees

by thegangseey



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: M/M, Sick Character, set some point after the raven king, the forest is full of magical fuckery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-03-22
Packaged: 2019-04-06 10:03:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14054520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegangseey/pseuds/thegangseey
Summary: Adam gets sick and Ronan finds him in the woods.





	Listen to the trees

Everything seemed distant and vague as if he was in a bubble and everything outside of it was foggy and out of reach. Shapes and shadows shifted through the trees and raced across the ground. One foot hit the wet grass, everything was dull, everything ached.

 

The trees began to whisper to him as he came closer, they were calling to him wanting him to come and stay a while, stay forever.

 

A single drop of rain made its way down through the canopy of leaves, Adam paused looking up through hazed eyes for a moment, the trees are crying he thought deliriously.

 

\--

 

Ronan had been gone to DC for three days, some Gansey family gathering that he had been coerced into going to while drunk two weekends ago and that Gansey had made him go to even though he wasn’t sure he had actually agreed and that Gansey wasn’t just lying to get him to go since Blue was out of town visiting cousins and Henry was back in Vancouver for the week.

 

Adam had agreed to watch over the farm animals and take care of the daily chores with a laugh as he shoved Ronan out the door on Thursday with his bag telling him ‘not do anything he wouldn’t do,’ then kissing him on the cheek.

 

Adam had called him just last night and they had briefly talked about their days, Adam had developed a bit of a cough and sneezed all the way through his phone call but consistently insisted that he was fine just allergies, he’d take some medicine and be fine.

 

Ronan really hadn’t thought anything more of it until the next morning when he texted Adam to let him know that he was on his way home and received no reply.

 

He must have been busy or his phone dead, it really wasn’t that big of a deal Ronan of all people knew how little answering your phone had to do with your actual well being, hell six months ago you couldn’t get him to touch a phone let alone dependably answer it, so he got it, really he did but it didn’t mean that there wasn’t still a hint of worry nagging at the edges of his brain.

 

Ronan pulled up to the barns in the BMW just as the sun was setting on the horizon making the landscape around him mostly dark except for the small amount of light still trying to hold on against the darkness. 

 

Adam's car was parked in the driveway just as it had been when he had left three days prior. The cows were gathered up at the main gate where Ronan usually came to let them into the next field each night but no one had come to let them out yet, the house was completely dark.

 

“Parrish I’m home,” Ronan yelled flipping on the house lights and setting down his bag on the floor. He was met with only silence.

 

“Adam?” He hollered into the empty house once more. Ronan walked into the kitchen where Adam usually sat at the table doing homework or studying, his books were there but he was not. 

 

The back door was slightly ajar and a trail of footprints in the mud led off towards the woods.

 

Ronan leapt off the back porch sprinting down the trail, coat forgotten in the hall with his bag. It started to rain, Ronan didn’t notice all that was pumping through him was fear and worry, thinking of all the possibilities, flashing back to finding his dad. 

 

The footprints continued deep into the forest until he came to a small clearing. In the middle sat Adam, barefoot and in nothing but a pair of pyjama bottoms and a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and by now covered in mud and soaking wet.

 

“Adam!” Ronan exclaimed diving onto the ground despite the rain-soaked dirt and wrapping his arms around Adam, Adam who was okay, Adam who wasn’t bleeding out onto the ground. “Jesus Christ you fucking scared me.” He said burying his face into his neck. 

 

“R-Ro?” Adam said, voice scratchy and sounding vaguely confused. “Wh-what are you doing here?” 

 

He was shaking and his clothes felt extremely cold and wet as if he had been outside for quite some time. 

 

“I just got home.. From the thing with Gansey, Adam it’s Sunday night why are you out here barefoot in the rain?”

 

Adam just stared at him blankly eyes slightly glossed over then whispered, “the trees” as if it answered anything that Ronan had just asked him.

 

“Jesus fuck okay let’s get you inside,” Ronan said slinging one of Adam's arms over his shoulder and pulling him up off the ground with him only for Adam's legs to give out as soon as they were upright.

 

“I don’t feel so good Ro.”

 

“I know it’s going to be okay we’re going to get you inside.” Ronan shoved an arm under Adam's legs and picked him up bridal style instead of dragging his dead weight all the way back to the house.

 

The trek back was much more gruelling than the adrenaline filled run into the woods had been, now that he knew Adam was safe and in his arms the tiredness from the sleepless nights spent in DC and the long car ride home began to set in.

 

Each step seemed to slow him down more, the mud tugging his boots down into the soft earth beckoning them to stay there. The rain only got heavier as he finally made his way out of the trees with Adam, the house finally in site.

 

\--

 

It didn’t take long for Adam to pass out once they got to the house, in fact, all it took was Ronan laying him down on the bed and he was out like a light. This, of course, left a totally new problem for Ronan of getting Adam into dry clothes which took a lot of effort and Adam fading in and out of sleep slightly dazed and not knowing where he was.

 

Once he had got Adam all settled, the reality of the fact that Ronan really didn’t know how to take care of someone who was sick began to set in. Along with memories of being sick as a child and his mother taking care of him, she would have known what to do.

 

Ronan paced outside of the bedroom door for a long time before finally deciding to make the call to fox way, they would know what to do. 

 

Orla picked up on the third ring sounding bored and extremely unimpressed at Ronan's urgent request to talk to Maura. 

 

“Maura the snake’s on the phone, he says he needs to talk to you.” She hollered in complete disregard for Ronan's eardrums.

 

“What does he want?” he could hear Calla hollering in reply from seemingly the other end of the house.

 

“Tell him I’ll be there in a minute,” Maura yelled.

 

“She’ll be here in a minute,” Orla told him as if he hadn’t just heard everything said.

 

A minute ended up actually being three minutes and a lot of awkward phone silence with Orla before the phone was finally handed over to Maura.

 

“Adam's sick.” Ronan blurted out before Maura could so much as say a hello.

 

“Oh my” she huffed seemingly taken off guard. There was a moment of pause, “Is he running a fever? What are his symptoms.”

 

“I don’t know I found him in the woods he was just sitting there all cold and wet and shaking and didn’t know what day it was. He was sneezing a lot during our last phone call but I thought he was fine but now he feels like he’s burning up and just won’t quit shaking.” Ronan rushed out almost gasping for air once he finished speaking after forgetting to breathe in his panic.

 

Maura let out a long sigh. “It sounds like he just has a really bad cold, make sure to keep him hydrated and give him some ibuprofen to help with the fever and shakes. The best thing you can do is let him rest.”

 

“If he gets any worse though, make sure and call me.”

 

“Thank you,” Ronan said feeling a little better knowing Adam was probably, hopefully, not just keel over suddenly. 

 

“It’s no problem sweetie, I’ll bring over some soup tomorrow and see how he’s feeling.” She said and the phone beeped signalling that the call had ended.

 

\--

 

Maura came by with soup the next day just as she had promised. Adam was looking a bit better, which really wasn't saying much, but at least he was somewhat coherent.

 

It took two days before Adam was finally feeling good enough to get up and move to the living area for a change of scenery.

 

He watched a movie curled up on the couch with Ronan drifting in and out of sleep as he heard the trees whispering at the edges of his consciousness.

 

it was another day and a half before Adam was almost himself again and able to make it through the full day with only a short nap. Although he was forced by Ronan to stay inside and take it easy since he still wasn't 100%.

 

The trees still whispered calling him back much to Adam's surprise since he had assumed that the voices had simply been a byproduct of his high fever and sickness. 

 

He mentioned this to Ronan later that night;

 

"The ley line must be out of whack somewhere. Probably just got to go move some shit and pop it back into place." Ronan said taking a sip of his tea before sitting it back down on the kitchen table.

 

Adam blew his nose before answering,"Yeah probably just need to check my cards." 

 

\--

 

That night all Adam dreamt of was the trees. He was surrounded by the forest, endless trees for miles and miles around him.

 

For some time he wandered around touching the trunks, feeling the energy. Trying to see where the line had been disrupted and how he could fix it upon waking.

 

Hours seemed to go by, or maybe just minutes, it was always hard to tell with dream time.

 

He was suddenly back in the small clearing that Ronan had found him in out in the forest. He couldn't remember how he got there just remembered a feel as if being pulled towards it.

 

He walked a slow circle around the perimeter running his hands along trees and plants as he went before coming across a large piece of metal sticking out of the ground. 

 

He knew what he needed to do.

 

\--

 

Adam was already awake and downstairs with coffee made when Ronan awoke.

 

He was sitting at the kitchen table in his pyjama bottoms and one of Ronan's t-shirts sipping coffee staring out the sliding door towards the woods where Ronan had found him four days ago.

 

Ronan snatched the coffee out of his hands and sat down across from him blocking his view.

 

"What's up?"

 

Adam blinked and shook his head a coming back from whatever train of thought he had been lost in.

 

"I think I know how to fix the ley line." He said leaning across the table and stealing his coffee back from Ronan.

 

Ronan raised his eyebrow.

 

"I had a dream about it last night," Adam continued. "We need to go back to the clearing that you found me in. There's something there blocking the line it looked like a big piece of metal but it was hard to tell in the dream."

 

Ronan was silent for a moment before sighing. "I'll go get the shovel."

\--

 

It takes them about 20 minutes to actually find the clearing again, it's much deeper into the woods than either of them remembers it being.

 

Today the clearing is bright and full of colour that wasn't immediately obvious in the greyish hues of the rainclouds and setting sun that they had seen it in the first time they were there.

 

Flowers bloomed all around despite Ronan knowing for a fact that some of them weren't in season.

 

They both stood there for a moment taking it all in before Adam slowly started circling the clearing as he had in his dream running his hands across the trees and plants as they directed him to where he needed to be.

 

Ronan watched in silence.

 

About halfway around the circle Adam stopped, there embedded in the dirt was the object he had been looking for.

 

He waved Ronan over. "This is it, I'm sure of it."

 

"What the fuck?" Ronan said crouching down to examine the object. It was dull and rusted, but unmistakably metal.

 

Adam took the shovel from Ronan's hands and began digging. The object had clearly been here for a while, having plenty of time to weasel its way deep into the earth.

 

Slowly, as the object became more and more uncovered it gained the unmistakable shape of a wheel. But not just any wheel, a Camaro wheel, one identical to the one that they had found in the lake.

 

Ronan began to laugh. 

 

Adam dropped the shovel with a huff and stared down at the Camaro wheel before beginning to laugh to.

 

Even without Cabeswater, and lost kings, the trees still held many secrets, many adventures yet to have.

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments appreciated!!


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